Names of the uvula in the western Iberian Peninsula: a geographical linguistic
approach
The study of the vocabulary of the human body has been and remains of interest, in
many languages, from several viewpoints, such as lexicology, semantics and historical
etymology. This interest is related to the fact that the parts of the human body play a
very basic role in the way human beings communicate, situate themselves and relate to
other humans and their environment. Linguistic geography provides an ideal working
corpus for the analysis of this area of the lexicon in Romance dialects, given that in all
language atlases in which maps are organised in terms of semantic concepts there is
always a section on the semantic field of the human body.
This study examines the terms for uvula found in the forms of Romance spoken in the
western part of the Iberian Peninsula. They are analysed taking into account both their
geographical distribution and the semantic motivations, largely metaphorical, behind the
variety of forms. For the motivational study of the names for this part of the body, use is
made of language atlases that provide information about the west of the peninsula,
including the Atlas Lingüístico de la Península Ibérica (ALPI).